Waking Up In A Field
by Tactition101
Summary: Yet another Awakening SI, but with a twist. Turns out I don't speak the language of another dimension, who knew? Unconventional spell repertoire implies God mode glass canon.
1. Chapter 1

Waking Up In A Field

Summary: Another Awakening SI, only this one has a twist. Surprise, surprise I don't exactly speak the language of a people who live in another dimension. Gamer elements applied via HUD system with unconventional spells mixed with the Conventional. Rated T for Language and possibly messy combat scenes.

1\. Zelretch, I'm Going To Kill You

Story Start: Field Outside Of Southtown

The first thing I became aware of was voices speaking in a language I not only didn't understand, but never actually heard before. I mean, I've heard people speak English, Spanish, French, German, Arabic, Russian, Swahili, Chinese, Japanese, and even a little bit of Vietnamese. I could recognize a language even if I couldn't speak it, there are just little bits of 'word flows' unique to each one, but what these guys were saying was part of a language I had literally never heard before.

Opening my eyes with a groan, they instantly widened when I saw a big guy in blue armor staring down at me in clear distrust and I have no problem with admitting I let out a surprised yelp even as I instinctively did a reverse summersault into a crouch and brought my right hand up to my ear in a knife hand ready to launch myself at him as my fight and flight reflexes kicked in. Or at least I would have been ready if an ethereal green blade of energy hadn't suddenly shot out of said hand. I slowly turned my head to look at the blade even as I moved my hand slightly away and said "What the frack?"

Standing up from my crouch, I examined the one-and-a-half-foot energy short sword blade that was coming out of my fingers, turning my hand and seeing the star burst pattern that reminded me a little bit too much of Twilight Sparkle's cutie mark for my comfort, (I like Saphroneth's MLP Loop Series, so sue me) I blinked and said "Who the hell gave me a tattoo?" I glanced at the blade and the glowing mark and flexed my fingers. The blade instantly disappeared but reappeared when I thought about it. A glance at my other hand showed a similar tattoo and another blade popped out when I thought about it. Glancing at the two, I said "Well this would make a lot of guys playing Assassin's Creed happy to have."

There was a rather impatient sentence said from the guy in front of me and I looked up as my Wind Blades dissipated. (And how the hell did I know what they were called when this is the first time I've ever been able to make them?) Seeing the blue-armored man properly for the first time, my face immediately went flat. Looking to my right where the voices had come from, I saw three other people looking at me, two girls and a boy, with blond, silver, and blue hair.

My face went even flatter before I face palmed and said "Oh by Log and Primus, you have to be kidding me! Awakening?! Why the SCRAP am I in Awakening?!" Then a thought about reading about a certain trolling Ancestor's habits in some of Sakurademonalchemist's stories hit me and I glared upwards as I shouted "ZELRETCH! I SWEAR THAT IF ONE OF YOU FANG FACE RED-EYE INFECTED TROLLING ASSHOLES DROPPED ME OFF HERE, THEN I'M GOING TO RIP OUT YOUR FANGS AND PIERCE YOUR NIPPLES WITH THEM! I'M A NIGHT SHIFT MAINTENANCE GUY, NOT A DAMNED U.S. MARINE!"

Surprisingly or not, there was no response from a possibly responsible dimension hopping vampire and I muttered a few more strings of curse words from a couple of Star Wars languages before I heaved a sigh and looked back down. Spotting the smoke from past the woods, I grumbled some more as I began stomping my way to Southtown, ignoring the other four people in the clearing as I began jogging. No way was I sprinting into a fight when just running at full speed for the mail box to check on the mail had my left hip unhappy with me. (Thank you, unknown boy scout, from unknown troop during meeting of troops for tackling me down a hill in a manner that also fractured my left tibia simply because I refused to roll down said hill.) Unsurprisingly, the three currently actual members of the Shepherds were quick to rush by me with Robin doing the same a few moments later, the petite pig tailed girl giving me a curious glance as she passed by.

A few minutes later, I reached the outskirts of the town to an unwelcome sight. The first level of the game was made in a way that it wouldn't overwhelm a new player so there was only a little under ten enemies during it. The IRL situation was less Native American ambush group, and a lot more Viking raiding party. The Shepherds and Robin were in a diamond formation, Lissa kept in the relative safety of the back point, and there were already twenty bodies on the ground as they made their way three fourths down the first street with all of their heads on a swivel. However, I noticed they weren't looking behind them as often as they should and unless I did something, they were going to get a rather violent reminder to constantly watch their six.

Seeing the six guys a quarter of the distance between them and the last building of the town sneaking up on the group using the crates and wagons in the street to stealthily make their way to the group, I tsked to myself before I shifted into a full-on arms behind back sprint and ran forward. I took in who my opponents would be as I ran, noting how half of them had axes, two of them held lances, and the last one at the back of the group appeared to be a mage going by the book in his hand. Said mage heard my rapid steps on the cobble stones and turned around.

Unfortunately for the mage, while I don't like to run, when I needed to, my thirty-inch-long legs could really eat up the distance and my right Wind Blade took his head off before he could he could finish his incantation after making the mistake of warning his teammates first. Spinning around the falling body, I pushed off my right foot and leapt for the first lance user, pushing off my left foot when I landed, this time to the right to throw off the aim of the lunge he had already started as I made one final push with my right foot to come in at a forty five degree angle away from the thrust. I wrapped my left arm around the lance preventing its use and the next instant the lance user's eyes widened as my Wind Blade took his hands off.

As the now literally disarmed opponent sank to his knees while screaming bloody murder, I took him out of his misery with a quick sab through the joint between shoulder and neck taking out his heart. I quickly focused on the others only to see that the other three combatants of our rag tag group had already taken care of them. A quick look around showed that no one obvious was coming and I glanced back down at my second kill. Seeing the blood coming from the three wounds, I groaned to myself and said "I think I'm either going to be sick, or have nightmares about this, and I'm not sure which I'd prefer." Surprisingly, it wasn't the fact I had ended someone's life that disturbed me. I had a very clinical viewpoint when it came to death, I hadn't even shed a single tear when my grandmother died after all, it was the rather 'wrong' sight of a guy's hands still gripping a lance without being connected to the forearms. Shaking my head, I took a deep breath and looked back up, there were still most likely others to take care of after all.

What I first saw when I looked away from the body was surprisingly, or maybe not given her profession, Lissa. The girl was giving me an evaluating look like she was trying to see if I was hurt at all while at the same time trying to see my reaction to the kill. The second thing I saw was Frederick giving me a severe frown. I'm pretty sure half of that was how my way of attacking left me wide open to a prepared opponent. Chrom and Robin merely spared me a glance as they stood over the dead bodies of their latest opponents. My attention was drawn back to Lissa as she asked a question and I cocked my head as I said "I have no idea what you just asked."

Lissa blinked as her face showed confusion and she asked something else that I couldn't understand and I sighed as I ran a hand through my hair and said "This is going to get really old, really fast." Shaking my head, I stepped around the blood puddle of my second kill and began making my way down the street. A moment later after a quick conversation behind me, the others joined up, once more making a diamond, only with Lissa between the rest of us with me at the back. Clearly, I had been unanimously designated as the rear guard, which was fine with me considering this was my first life or death situation.

Thirty minutes and about sixty two bodies later, ten of which were mine after they tried sneaking up on us again in ones and twos, Chrom apparently deduced that there were no more enemies around since he and Robin had teamed up on a guy with a fancier axe than the others and was currently talking to who I assumed was the leader of the town at the start of a bridge going over a river that cut through the town. I was at the middle of the bridge frowning at the by its weight apparently empty blue one pouch book bag that had been on my back the entire time I had been here. There was a side pouch that _felt_ empty but when I opened it had a red Nintendo 3DS XL that looked _very_ familiar to me.

I had just finished debating with myself if I should pull it out and turn it on right then and there or when the Shepherds set up camp when the matter was taken out of my hands as Frederick walked past leading his horse behind him while shooting me a suspicious look. Chrom was the next to follow, shooting me a more uncertain look even as he made a hand gesture to follow him quickly followed by Robin and Lissa, both shooting me a concerned look. Sighing, I zipped up the side pouch and slung the book bag over my shoulders before I started to follow them. It wasn't like I had anything better to do after all.

Time Skip: Three Hours Later

There was a fire going providing light in the face of falling night, bear meat sizzling on sticks as they cooked, and four Shepherds around the fire talking. I wasn't a part of this group though, instead of trying to communicate in a language I had no hope of understanding anytime soon, I was instead turning on my 3DS XL hoping it could _somehow_ give me answers to what the Bolt was going on here. The screen lit up but instead of my programs showing up in a six-row grid formation a text screen appeared causing my eyes to narrow and dart side to side as I began reading the scrolling text out loud.

" _Greetings Tac101, as you have no doubt discovered by now, you are currently in a Fire Emblem world, TI 385, to be exact. You are here for one reason and one reason only: I was drunker than usual._ (If I was in a cartoon I would have face planted just now.) _Allow me to explain that, you see about a week ago, I was in a drinking contest with a fellow higher plane resident and we were joking around about how much chaos we could cause with dropping people in dimensions vastly different than their own that they were unfamiliar with. That in turn shifted to talk about 'informed seeds of chaos', pretty self-explanatory term there, and one thing lead to another and when I woke up in the morning three days after with a Death Star sized hangover, half the preparations were already done so I thought to myself 'Eh, why not?', and here we are._

 _I suppose I should go over said preparations now. Fear not, you don't have to rely on just your slightly noteworthy heavy labor honed muscles and slightly more impressive reflexes in a world where you don't even know the language or have any currency, I'm not quite that heartless. I'm certain you have noticed the new additions to your hands and even stumbled across a spell or two. As you've most likely guessed, those 'tattoos' are there for more than just decoration, they're Spell Sigils, and Class Tens at that. What does Class Ten mean you ask? It means that they have ten elements 'programmed' into them and are powered by Zero Point Energy, yes like the ZPMs from Stargate, only these bad boys have the bonus feature of being able to switch what they draw their energy from when the current source runs out, not that I expect you to drain them to that point even with a decade of near constant use. These elements are as thus: Wind, Water, Fire, Lightning, Earth, Light, Dark, Gravity, Space, and Staff. The last three are not usually considered to be actual elements for sure but they're still handy. And as a bonus, you have two more Spell Sigils on your feet allowing you to use them to cast spells as well, but don't worry, they're programed to create the spells two inches from them so your socks and shoes are safe._

 _As in the Fire Emblem games you have weapon levels, only in this case their applied to each element separately and you're on your own when it comes to any weapons you wish to learn. This is done through 'programming' limits in the Sigils. In order to increase your 'spell' level and thus gain access to the next set of spells you must use the primary spell exactly one hundred times in order to 'master' them. The secondary spells of each level do not contribute to the mastery count but are still useful to have both in and out of combat. Now that you know how to get more spells, let's talk about the spells you currently have access to._

 _We'll start off with Wind. Wind is the first-tier spell of the wind class obviously, but you also have Wind Blades which start with a short sword length but with practice can be lengthened to claymore lengths as well. Be careful though, this spell will cut the user just as well as it will cut an enemy so always be aware where the blade is. The other secondary spell is called Wind Jet. As the name suggests, this spell shoots a continuous jet of wind out of your Spell Sigil. Be careful with their use though, for while it is a very handy spell, most of the other spells you can currently and will be able to use will be affected if they are used through the same Sigil._

 _Next is Water. Water is the spell that best suit capture missions where you want to knock someone on their ass but not overly hurt them. Don't let the non-lethality of the spell fool you though, there is nothing more amusing than seeing a Fire class mage's face when you completely neutralize their spell in midair. The next spell on this tier is Water Hole, and is incredibly useful when one is not near a ready supply of water. This spell affects the air molecules around you and either condenses the already present H2O or convert the other molecules into Water. Best used with cupped hands for the user, it is however perfect for refilling water skins or quickly filling large containers with water, just be careful you don't turn some poor sap standing next to you into water molecules (Or maybe you want to, no body, no proof after all.)_ (I let out a shudder at that. It'd be an effective way to kill for sure but it did NOT sound like a pleasant thing to see.) _The final first-tier Water spell is Bubble. This spell creates a field of light refracting bubbles that can be used to not only confuse an opponent trying to fight you but also blind them if used on a particularly bright day, just be careful that it doesn't back fire on you when you use it._

 _Next up is Fire. Coupled with Fire you have two spells: Campfire Starter and Radiant Heat. Campfire Starter is fairly obvious, it shoots a very small jet of flame. It's more useful than that though since you can use it to slowly burn anything flammable in its one to three-foot range, like that pesky rope that's keeping your arms tied behind your back if your captured. Just be careful about the heat it produces. Radiant Heat is also fairly easy to understand, even if the name is slightly misleading. The spell heats up the air around a person, with a base range of five feet around them and a base temperature rise of ten degrees. However, with practice and focus, one could extend both that range and temperature, to the point where they could even intentionally create thunderstorms if they have the proper know how._

 _Following Fire is Lighting. Lightning's first two secondary spells are Static Field and Charge. Static Field as the name suggest produces a field of static around the user which will deliver a static shock to anyone wearing or using metal, the more metal on them, the bigger the shock. Be careful with its use though, because it doesn't differentiate between enemy or ally. Charge is your Hail-Mary pass in this world. It is able to send a charge into any electrical device and quickly charge it within five minutes no matter what kind of amperage or voltage required. You will be very glad for this spell not only to keep the device in your hands operational but a few other goodies I put in your inventory as well._ (That had me blinking since the thought of how long I would be able to keep the 3DS XL's battery going hadn't quite come to the forethought of my mind yet.)

 _Next up is Earth. Earth's projectile may be as small as a football, but it hits just as hard as the line man carrying it. Pebble Field is next and always great for a laugh. So long as the surface your standing on can be considered to be that of Earth, IE dirt, stone, or metal, it turns the first six inches of said surface into a field of marble sized spheres. Needless to say, anyone standing on top is going to have trouble staying upright. The final Earth first-tier spell is also an area of effect one, Quicksand, this spell's area of effect starts off at five feet deep and a three-foot circle that the caster can have form up to ten feet away but can be modified to be as large and deep as well as far away from the caster given enough mental effort and practice._

 _After Earth is the fastest element, Light. Light's two secondary spells are Spotlight and Light Orb, both rather self-explanatory so enough said._ (I let out a huff at that before I kept reading.)

 _Since you can't have Light without Dark, that's next. Dark is not to be mistaken with dark magic. There is no necromancy with this class, rather it deals with the absence of light. This is shown rather clearly with the first secondary spell: Light's Out, which douses every light source in its range whether it's provided by fire, electrical light, glowing, or even bioluminescent. The other secondary spell is decidedly more sinister: Blind. This spell targets the enemy's eyesight, putting a thin film of darkness over the optical organs preventing the target from seeing anything._

 _Next up is my personal favorite, Gravity. Gravity may have only El and Arc levels after it when it comes to the primary spell, but this 'element' has SO much more to offer. The first secondary spells are key examples of this: Negate and Increase. These spells are incredibly useful, affecting the gravitonic force asserted on objects, the limits are truly only set by the user._

 _Penultimately is Space, not to be confused with the concept of space, this class deals with the location and its higher tiered spells are just as varied as the great beyond is. Space shoots a ball of moving vacuum at the target putting whatever passes through its path in a complete vacuum, and thus very cold temperatures. Just keep in mind that water boils much quicker in a vacuum than at room temperature._ (I chocked a little as I remembered the Flights of Fantasy episode of Mythbusters where they showed a jar of water boiling in the testing chamber the two special effects specialists were training for U2 flight.) _As gruesome as Space can be, the secondary spells you currently have access to are much tamer. The North Star spell will mentally project the location of said star to you regardless of day or night time and any objects visibly in its way. Aurora Borealis is your trolling spell when it comes to other spell castors. It creates a field of the cosmic event around you, the energy preventing the use of magic from others who use it the 'natural' way. Just remember that both sides are affected by this area of effect spell unless they too have Spell Sigils._

 _The final class is your Staff spells. For the first tier of this class, you have Heal, Barrier, and Silence. Heal is the first level of your curative spells. Requiring physical contact, this spell is no less effective, able to heal both 'top side' wounds as well as for a period of time sooth various ailments that come from older wounds whose effects still linger. Barrier forms a thin barrier over its target, allowing the user to withstand a small amount of damage from both spells and weapons. Don't get too cocky though, it doesn't take too much to break it. Silence prevents a target from both using their voice and their magic. Good for keeping a prisoner from escaping their bonds along with keeping them from annoying you with the various insults and threats they no doubt want to hurl at you._

 _With the Spell Sigils covered, we move onto the next modification I gave you, the HUD. While normal Head's Up Displays are housed in headwear equipment, yours is based off of a Mystic Code that has been for lack of a better word imprinted around your eyes before it sank into them._ ('Oh, that could have gone badly.' I couldn't help but think with a wince.) _The HUD therefore is operated in a mix of mental commands and eye movements. First things first, you turn on the HUD by thinking 'HUD on', likewise to turn it off you think 'HUD off'. Your HUD has four primary functions, Map, Marker, IFF, and Selector for some of the high tier spells you will be able to use in the future that are linked to this device and thus your HUD._

 _Map is fairly obvious, and you have two versions, Personal and World. Personal is the most detailed with a range of ten miles while World is what you will use to set long distant marker coordinates and jump coordinates if you ever figure out how to unlock the teleport option I've given you but hidden away in your device's programs, and good luck finding it within the next year. Marker is also fairly straight forward, you use it to mark people, places, or items that you want to keep track of. Since anyone who's played a shooter game of any kind could tell a kid what an IFF does I won't go into it though it may be a good idea to take a look through its logo log at some point and I've already explained what the Selector is for._

 _Last thing to cover is your Inventory, which is fairly straight forward. It's based off of the book bag I gave you upon your arrival here but if you need to store something bigger than its opening, merely say Store and the item's name you wish to store, do keep in mind that you must have your bookbag within ten feet of the item for this to work. Also, if for any reason, you must place a person in your inventory, do them a favor and make sure they're unconscious when you do so. The sight of being in an extradimensional pocket is likely to do some wonky things with their mental health, even if the 'item' stored is kept in stasis, they will still experience the whole time in a way that's too complicated to go into so for convenience's sake, just knock them out first. Moving on, the Inventory's sorting method is customizable so be sure to have a look through its options. I've also left you a few surprises in there so have fun. Well, as one kid genius once said, it's been fun but I've got to jet. Looking forward to what you make of this opportunity._

 _P.S. Be sure to take a look sometime at that Talking Phrasebook program you bought for your 3DS XL."_

I blinked even as I let out a sigh of relief. It didn't take a genius to work out that whatever drunkard had dropped me off here had added the language of this land to the phrase program. At least this way if I failed as miserably at learning this land's language as I did Spanish in high school I could use the phrases in the program to try and scrape by. The sight of the programs appearing in their grid pattern drew my attention back to the screen and I felt my eyebrows raise themselves when I saw not only my original downloaded programs but the ones that were on game cards displayed. Shrugging at the unexpected but welcome addition, I went to the Inventory and was pleasantly surprised to see not only my IPhone but also my laptop and four external hard drives being the first things listed. It looked like I wouldn't have to worry about going through tv show withdrawal symptoms while here.

After I had taken a look through the Inventory I turned off the 3DS with a soft hum as I put it back in its pouch, the pocket instantly sagging inwards as soon as the zipper was fully closed showing the device had been put into the dimensional pocket of the Inventory. As I put the book bag back on my back, I glanced at my left leg in thought before I placed my left hand on the hip joint and said "Heal."

The Spell Sigil on my left hand lit up with a Hunter's Green glow and I let a sigh of relief out as a pressure on the joint that had always been there since I injured it but that I had learned to ignore lessened a considerable deal. It hadn't gotten rid of the old injury, I'd probably need a much higher tiered healing spell for that, but it would definitely help if I Healed it every day. I did a quick Heal to my ankle as well before I glanced at the others. Frederick was looking at me suspiciously (Big shocker there), the two girls had their heads cocked in curiosity, Lissa staring more at my left hand than the rest of me, clearly wondering how I used a healing spell without a staff, and Chrom had an undecipherable look on his face even as he reached for one of the bear meat stakes and brought the food towards him.

Looking to said meat sticks, I let out a grimace as I pulled one towards me and took a tentative bite. The meat tasted plain weird to me, but I managed to work through that and ate the whole portion before I used my new Water Hole spell to clear out the taste in my mouth before I stood up and walked over to the surrounding trees. Finding one that was slightly thicker than the others, I lined up my right palm to face the trunk and started firing blasts of Wind at it. The spells I had so far were alright, but I would be a fool not to take the chance to 'level' up the elements so I had enough fire power for what was to come.

END


	2. Chapter 2

2\. Going Off Script

Well, I had managed to upgrade one of my spell classes tonight. Using Negate, I had practically shot up a tree and once at the top had fired Wind into the air in ten sets of ten. However, when I didn't seem to get a notification on my HUD about taking a level in the class I found out that you actually need to hit a target for it to count. Disappointed but not surprised that I couldn't just level up my offensive classes so quickly, I went back down to the base of the tree and used a wind blade to carve a bull's eye target into the tree trunk. A quick shot at the target from twenty feet away showed that the counter had gone up one and I started blasting at it, keeping my distance in order to avoid the flying wood chips. I would have repeated my actions with Elwind but after the first one blasted the tree hard enough to actually cause it to bend hard enough the roots lifted up a couple inches I figured that would have to wait until I could train by myself on boulders, if not a cliff side for the higher levels.

Speaking of Elwind, the two secondary spells for D level Wind Class spells were Breeze and Wind Lance. Breeze as the name suggested was a breeze of moving air that moved between one and ten miles around the user, with a starting range of five feet around the user that could easily be expanded with practice. Wind Lance was essentially a double-sided Wind Blade that you held in your hand like an actual lance rather than it being attached to your fingertips making it better for techniques that required more flexibility than just stabbing a knife hand into your opponent or sweeping said knife hand across the front of them.

I would have gone for upgrading another spell class if the others hadn't showed signs of bedding down, and without being able to speak the language I did NOT want to annoy Frederick any more than absolutely necessary. No telling what a man capable of wrestling with a bear and killing it that way could do to me after all. As soon as I was sure that the other four were asleep, I tagged them all with markers before I pulled out my 3DS and headphones and began looking through the Phrasebook program, one ear jacked in and one ear kept free and constantly listening around me. I didn't have high hopes of being able to actually hold a conversation with the Shepherds anytime soon but repetition would make it easier so I might as well get started now. Two hours in, I heard Chrom begin to get up shortly followed by Lissa and I closed the 3DS with a quiet snap. The sound gained both of their attention and Chrom frowned when I stood up and walked over to him. I took an exaggerated look around before giving him a raised eyebrow. His frown grew more as he looked around in confusion before he sighed and made a follow me gesture and began walking, Lissa and me following.

There was silence for the first thirty minutes, our path lit up by a dimly shining Light Orb that hung overhead as we walked. It surprised me how long we were walking since I would have thought Chrom's danger sense would have been tripped much closer to the temporal portal's activation. That thought was put on the back hold when I felt a tremor through my tennis shoes just subtle enough that the two with me didn't feel it through their thicker boots.

"Ah hell." I muttered catching the other two's attention as I looked back. When I heard the first tree fall I cursed again and shouted "Run!" I took off like a shot but Chrom and Lissa still easily shot past me. Two steps later I remembered my new Negate spell and I was taking leaping bounds to keep up. I considered using Wind Jet as well but dismissed it. I needed to keep up with the two, not over take them. And I couldn't Negate them since I couldn't communicate with them well enough to explain the concept of weight removal.

Eventually after outrunning a magma eruption we came to a stop and as Lissa leaned on her knees to catch her breath I turned my head upwards and said "Chrom." The prince jerked at me saying his name before he and Lissa followed my gaze and I heard her gasp as the portal began to form. We watched as the two Risen dropped out and I aimed a pair of Spot Lights at them. They blinked in surprise for about ten seconds at the bright lights that were blinding them but gave a roar each before running towards us. Of course, I hadn't been idle, forming a Wind Lance in my left hand while holding my right towards them and Chrom had followed my actions by drawing Falchion. As the two Risen closed with us I began chanting Elwind under my breath repeatedly sending blasts of wind magic downrange. The first few shots went wide but as the Risen got close I tagged the one on the right and it went down with a roar before disappearing in purple smoke. Chrom shot forward and slashed the one on the left only to receive a shock when it was still around and tried to kill him. He quickly dispatched it in time for us to see Lucina make her entrance. I didn't pay any attention to her though since my Spot Lights revealed movement in the woods in front of us. I sent my Light Orb higher up into the air before cranking its Lux Factor up to eleven turning night into day. Once my eyes adjusted to the brightness, it was clear that like Southtown there were a hell lot of more enemies here than in the game. As in a whole freaking platoon of thirty of the bastards rather than the two fire teams of six to eight I remembered.

Scowling at the sight of the Risen running towards us, I discarded my Wind Lance and leapt in front of the others and held both hands held out at a right angle to each other before I began bringing them inwards as I called out as fast as I could "Elwind Elwind Elwind Elwind Elwind Elwind Elwind Elwind Elwind Elwind Elwind Elwind Elwind Elwind Elwind-" I crossed my hands one over the other to form two full lines of the spells sending a barrage of the large wind blasts down range. The rapid barrage slammed into trees and risen alike, greatly reducing their numbers down to ten of them. It was at this point that Frederick and Robin made their presences known as Robin cut loose with a Thunder and Frederick went charging past me on his horse. With Frederick making it ill advised to do another Gatling style barrage, I shot forward for better accuracy and tore through the Risen at close range. Sully and Virion joined up with our group right as the last two Risen were dealt with, the last one taking an arrow to the head from the Archest of Archers (Whatever the hell that meant) and the last one got split in half courtesy of Chrom's Falchion.

I let out a sigh as the dialogue of the chapter played through, using heal again on my eft hip and ankle, the hip not having liked all of the moving I had did while the ankle was simply out of principle. Letting out another sigh, this time of relief, I looked up just in time to see Lucina already slipping away from the others. I was just barely quick enough to tag her with a marker before she slipped behind a tree and out of my false daylight. I frowned briefly considering whether I would be better off with her before I gave a sharp "Nah!" and went to join the others as they began making their way to the capital, dropping my Spot Lights as I did and dimming my Light Orb back to its previous level as it dropped down to hover over my head.

We marched throughout the night, arriving to the capital in the grey light of predawn. As we walked through the large settlement I matched IFF markers with the log I had been given.

"Civilian, Civilian, Reserve, Palace Guard, Pegasus Knight, Civilian, Shepherd, Civi- wait, what?" I suddenly stopped and snapped my head around when I saw the logo. A few steps later, Sully noticed I wasn't following and called out to me drawing the attention of the others. I ignored her though as I tried to figure out why there was a Shepherd IFF tag just floating in the air for a moment before I face palmed and took purposeful steps towards it. Once right in front of it, I knocked my hand three times on open air only to hear flesh meet metal and suddenly I was grinning at Kellam's shocked face. Giving a nod to myself and then a two-fingered salute to the one of invisibility, I quickly trotted over to the other Shepherds, Kellam's heavy armored steps following. The other Shepherds seemed surprised at Kellam's presence and my ability to detect him but seemed to want to get to the palace more than trying to break the language barrier to question me and we were soon back on our way, Lissa appearing to explain to Kellam about me if the hand gestures were anything to go by. I tagged Kellam with a marker as we walked before going back to identifying IFF tags, this was one Shepherd I would definitely want to know the location of at all times. The guy was a freaking ninja with his stealth training, and yes, he did train to be that 'invisible' according to the support conversations he had with Cordelia.

Eventually we reached the palace where our group split apart, Chrom Lissa and Frederick leading me, Robin, and Virion into the massive building while Sully and Kellam headed in another direction, most likely to the Shepherd barracks. We newbies followed the original three through the palace before we came into a rather wide corridor/audience hall. I wasn't sure what to call it as I looked around. It had balconies on either side of its length showing hallways that overlooked it though there weren't obvious stairs to them, a few doorways going off said walls and what looked like a rather large conference table further down the corridor. However, the most important detail was the fact that the Exalt and her Second in Command was in the room and talking with Chrom and the others.

I hung in the back watching as first Robin then Virion were introduced and asked questions before Chrom turned to me and gestured me over. Giving the Exalt a wary look, I stepped forward and gave a bow before I gave Chrom an uncertain look. It wasn't like I could answer interview questions after all, for all I knew they had been discussing the recipe in Reese's Puff cereal this whole time. Chrom pointed at the palm of his left hand with his right pointer finger and I let out a soft "Ah" in understanding. It wasn't answers they wanted, it was a demonstration. I walked to the right of the group for ten steps before I turned around and for theatrics' sake brought my right hand up to my left shoulder before slashing it down, a Wind Blade forming on the down stroke. I did the same with my left hand immediately after and let the blades hum to themselves for a few seconds before I dismissed them and formed a Wind Lance in my right hand and began spinning it around a few times before I dismissed it and used Breeze, taking a few moments to figure out how to extend the range so that the watchers also felt the air moving before I dismissed it and began running through a few of my other secondary spells, staying away from the Earth and Lightning ones since I didn't want to ruin the floor or shock the watchers. I finished my little demonstration by firing a Wind from my position near the ceiling down the rather long corridor, the relatively intangible attack magic dissipating harmlessly against the far-off wall after having lost most of its energy traveling so far. With the last spell done, I kicked off the ceiling and drifted down to the floor, flipping around on the way and canceling my Negate so that way I was at my full weight again, dropping the last foot with slightly bent knees.

There were more unrecognizable words shared between Chrom and his older sister before Chrom said something to Lissa who nodded and said something to Virion and Robin before she pointed at me and made the universal follow me gesture. I gave a nod and we all followed Lissa out of the room, the other occupants already back into deep discussion. We went down a new set of corridors to come out of the 'side' of the palace where what looked to be a slightly fancier then usual barracks sat between two others, the middle one not only twice as big with two stories but twice as wide as well. It didn't take much to realize that this place was made for the Elite of Ylisse's military personnel. A minute later we were in the common room of the barrack and I took in the sight of Maribelle talking with Sumia with Stahl and Vaike watching nearby. A quick glance around showed Kellam's marker but no Kellam and I grinned as I purposefully strode over to him and gave what I was sure was going to become the customary three knocks against his armor.

After I had given a yet again surprised Kellam a two-fingered salute, I made my way back to the others and stood beside Maribelle, giving her a small but respectful bow of my head, and it was a bow, not a nod, and Maribelle blinked once before she did some abbreviated curtsey gesture with only her hands before both of us turned our attention back to the conversation Lissa was having with Robin and Virion. When Vaike suddenly let loose with a belch that would have had him being given disapproving looks at pretty much every single restaurant on the planet back home, I cut him off partway through, my Gibbs slap to the back of his head causing him to stumble forward a step. When he spun around to glare at me, I gave him a glare of my own before I said "The next time you insist on acting like an ogre, consider the station of those around you, we have a princess in Lissa, a high noble in Maribelle, and two other women in Sumia and Robin. Not to mention it's disgusting for the rest of us." I pointed at the ladies as I said their names hoping it would get at least part of what I was saying across the language barrier.

Fortunately for me, Maribelle seemed more than willing to get my message across as she verbally tore into Vaike. I didn't need to know the language to know it was much worse than what I could come up with, just the facts she went for a full five minutes and Vaike was cringing more and more as it went on was enough evidence. Maribelle ended her tirade with the huff of a high society person having to deal with those well below their station who didn't even try to use the 'common' manners that everyone should be taught before she turned towards me and asked a question. I only had time to raise an eyebrow in confusion before Lissa seemed to be YET AGAIN explaining my language problem.

Maribelle apparently found my lack of communication skills slightly horrifying but before anything more could come from that particular revelation, Chrom and Frederick entered the barracks and orders were soon visibly given as most of the group quickly left the room. I was left looking around the room in confusion while Chrom gestured Maribelle over and began talking with her in a low voice. "Like I could even understand you guys if you talked normally." I huffed to myself as I watched them before Maribelle nodded and turned back to me with a considering look. Having an idea what that meant, I gave Chrom a raised eyebrow before I pointed first to myself, then the noble before putting my pointer finger on the flat palm of my other hand in a fairly common gesture for 'stay'. Chrom raised an eyebrow of his own but nodded with a smile, apparently glad that I had figured it out myself without them having to pantomime what they wanted.

As Chrom said one last thing to Maribelle which had her giving a more formal if just as short curtsy to her lord, I cocked my head and thought 'Looks like I'm not going to get to see the fight between Chrom and Lucina after all. At least I can keep Maribelle safe though.' Maribelle watched Chrom leave the room before she sighed and turned back to me and gave me a thorough once over. I could tell she didn't know what to think of my 'modern' clothes, not that I could blame her. They were obviously 'common' clothes, but made better than anything else she had probably seen short of in a ball held for nobility. I probably didn't help matters when I brought out my 3DS and selected an army camouflage hat that I had gotten at a yard sale and my 'Zelretch' had provided with a few other things from home and put it on, giving as crisp a military salute as I could manage to her. I was validated though when she gave a roll of her eyes and a definitely amused sounding huff before she made a follow gesture and began making her way out of the commons.

We made a quick stop at what was obviously her room, the two parasols set in a rack that matched the one attached to the belt simile of her outfit were a big clue. Maribelle grabbed a piece of paper and a quill and drew something on it before she turned and gestured me over. When I reached her desk, I looked down to see a pretty good drawing of a small horse with a rider before I looked at her in surprise as she grabbed my left hand and intently studied the Spell Sigil there. A moment later, she had copied it on the paper next to the horse along with wings before drawing a question mark below the drawings. I took just a moment to thank Primus and a few other now supposedly fictional gods that at least the grammar marks of the language were most likely going to be same if she was using that mark before she tapped the page while looking at me expectedly. I cocked my head in confusion before I let out a soft "Oh" in understanding. She was asking if I could ride a horse or would use my Spell Sigil to travel. Clearly Chrom had mentioned my earlier demonstration. I cocked my head in thought before I tapped the horse. I did know how to ride since I had a friend who loved them. Sure, there'd be sore legs but that's what the Heal spell was for. I got a nod of approval from Maribelle for my choice and she quickly shooed me out of her room while she packed a bag.

We made a quick stop in the kitchens, Maribelle abusing my Inventory with glee to grab a few perishables along with the standard 'traveling food' of the era when she found out about it. After that it was straight to the stables and Maribelle had one of the servants there ready a horse for me even as she cooed over her own personal mount, giving it a quick carrot along with a brief but detailed brushing before putting her saddle on it. Clearly, she had been taught that it was better for her to do her own 'maintenance' of her horse than just let the servants do it for her. She led her horse out of its stable and once the stable hand had given me the reigns for my own mount I followed her. Once outside of the stable we mounted up and after ensuring that I actually seemed to know what I was doing Maribelle led the way out of a small palace entrance and we began making our way for Themis, and unknowingly in Maribelle's case, trouble.

END

Author's Notes: Check out the poll I put on my profile dealing with the three one shots I'm currently working on. Poll will be closed in one week.


	3. Chapter 3

3\. Replacing Maribelle

Author's Notes: Ylissean will be in normal font while English will be in Italics from now on.

Story Start: Maribelle's Home

It took two days of relatively fast galloping to reach Themis. Maribelle had actually had me start on Ylisse's number system during the breaks between riding and had me keep repeating said numbers as we rode so I could now count from one to ten relatively easy on command. When we did reach her home, a 'modest' two story manor that was still bigger space wise than everything else by about a quarter, Maribelle had a quick conversation with the servant that greeted us who glanced at me before giving a quick bow and went off, most likely to prepare a guest room for me. And then the wannabe barrister proceeded to somehow drag me without actually touching me into the library and my own personal hell started.

You see, I don't know if I said it before, but learning via books is NOT my best ability. You could show me how to do some task only once and not only could I do it just as well after only a couple of tries, depending on the task, I'd probably come up with a better way of doing it after ten times doing said task. But book learning? Yeah, better make up two batches of coffee for yourself because you'll be here for a while. Maribelle certainly drank a lot of tea during the seven days we were secluded in the library that's for sure.

Her determination and patience with me were to be commended though since I could now count to a hundred, recognize every letter of the Ylissian alphabet but quote it both forwards and, with a little bit of time, backwards, but also knew about fifty words and three basic phrases. Of course, I had returned the favor and began teaching her English, only she could now also chain letters into about fifty different short sentences on the local equivalent of paper without looking at the 'cheat sheet' of English to Ylisse letters and numbers we had made. Made me feel a bit dimwitted if I was being honest with myself even if we were now communicating a LOT better than just playing charades.

Right now though, we weren't in the library, or even in the manor at all. Instead, we were at the local archery range after I had requested a break to work on spell practice. Maribelle not only allowed the break, but surprised me when she joined me in the practice area with a Thunder class spell book. Apparently she was already practicing how to use offensive magic alongside healing magic this early in the story, though she admitted she was nowhere near ready to use it in combat yet, too long of a charge time.

Charge times were the last thing I had to worry about when it came to using spells. My problem was accuracy at medium to long distances. My spray and pray method of chain firing spells would not be an effective way of fighting in the future, especially not when there were friendlies mixed up with enemies so on top of working for D-levels I was also working on making every shot count. It wasn't until I got to the Light spells that I actually was hitting with any reliable groupings, though I blamed the fact that the Water, Fire, and Earth spells were so large that it was pretty much impossible to properly identify said groupings. Still, at the end of the day I had all of the elemental classes caught up with Wind so that was good. Said spells were as followed.

Water had Elwater, Water Shuriken and Bubble Beam. Elwater not only was a quarter bigger than the basic water spell, it also hit much faster giving it the kick needed to do proper damage. Water Shuriken allowed you to throw up to four shuriken per hand and could actually home in on the target. And Bubble Beam had _explosive_ bubbles which had me cackling a little and Maribelle wisely putting a few firing line slots between us when I gave it a try.

Fire had Elfire, Fire Lance, and Flame Burst. Fire Lance appeared to merely be an elemental copy of Wind Lance but Flame Burst appeared to be a low tier mortar spell that while a bit weaker than Elfire had a much greater range and splash damage starting at five feet that could be ramped up all the way to twenty five feet if you super charged the spell.

Lightning had Ellightning, Lightning Lance, and Electroweb. I was starting to see a pattern with the 'second secondaries' but I didn't muse over it for long though, since the Electroweb spell was pretty interesting. Not only could you launch it at an enemy and shock them on top of keeping them trapped but you could actually use it as a trap, the strands of the web capable of being invisible until the target hits them and it began discharging. THAT had potential for ambushes.

Earth gave me Elearth, Stone Edge, and Sandstorm. Elearth went from football sized chunks of earth to watermelon sized and got a 2x increase in speed as well. Stone Edge raised spikes of freaking _obsidian_ out of the ground that were between two to six inches tall that absolutely SHREDDED whatever put pressure on them which would lead to a rather gruesome death for whatever poor bastard wound up in its area of effect. Sandstorm was both a cloaking and an offensive spell, its area of effect, velocity, and density highly variable. Enough practice with the spell would probably allow me to skin someone to the bone with it which I wasn't sure was better or worse than the Stone Edge spell.

Light's second tier spells were Ellight, the now familiar Light Lance, and Light Ripple. Light Ripple had me cocking my head as I read its description. Apparently, it sent out a pulse of light at a variable height and while slightly substandard against human opponents, this thing could _evaporate_ whatever part it hit of any creatures of darkness meaning Risen Better. Watch. The. HELL. Out! The best part though? It was the first of FIVE tiers. I won't lie, I drooled a little when I thought about what the fifth level was going to be like.

Dark had Eldark, Shadow Claw, and Shadow Strike. Shadow Claw gave me three claws of darkness between my finger knuckles Wolverine style while Shadow Strike made any moves my shadow did have physical impact. I could use my Light Orb or Spot Light spells to make my shadow even longer for greater effect.

Gravity had Elgravity, Gravitational Pull, and Gravitational Repel. The names were pretty self-explanatory, making gravity anomalies that would either pull everything around you towards you or push them away.

Space had Elspace, Solar Blast, and Lunar Blast. Solar Blast required an unblocked sun to be used to its fullest and could actually leave residual burns around the area of the attack. Lunar Blast meanwhile was a spell whose power was dependent on the phase of the moon and apparently a Full Moon shot of the spell could easily knock holes through a few walls of a fortress. And it seemed that if the attacks were ever used during their Celestial Object's eclipse the power would be three times as strong as a full powered blast.

All of these spell classes were relatively easy to 'level up' though, I simply pointed my hand toward the provided targets and stagger fired in ten sets of ten. The Staff class was what really gave me trouble, and Maribelle's severe disapproval. I COULD have simply gone to town with my Heal spell in the town's local equivalent of a hospital, if there were actually anyone who needed healing. Given that this town actually had healers though there WEREN'T anyone to heal which meant I would have to inflict injuries before I could heal injuries. So what I finally wound up doing was using my new Shadow claws on my right hand to lightly touch my left arm leaving multiple shallow cuts. Stung just a bit worst than getting paper cuts and it left my arm completely bloody but within five minutes I had access to Mend, Sleep, and Torch. The first two were pretty self-explanatory but the Torch spell had the added benefit of on top of imitating Light Orb clearing local weather conditions such as rain and fog in a hundred-yard radius.

A quick application of the Water Hole spell had all of the blood gone and I had JUST been considering whether it would be worth it to get another Staff level or even go all the way to S Class (We were going to be in a war soon, the greater healing capacity would be needed if nothing else) when Maribelle purposefully put herself a foot away from me and shook her head with a stern frown, her disapproval clear even as she pulled my once injured arm towards her and looked it over for anything my own healing spell had missed. Once she was sure my arm was fine, she pointed back into the manor, her meaning clear: Enough magic practice, it was time to get back to the books.

That had been a week ago, and now that we were two weeks into the lessons I couldn't help but wonder every half hour when the Plegian raiders would get here. Surely it didn't take THAT long for Chrom's group to reach Ferox. Then again, who knew when the competition to establish the ruling Khan would be. For all I knew, they were still waiting for the darn thing to start next week. And Maribelle was starting to notice my stress, even if she was too polite to ask about it. Fortunately, I wouldn't have to wait much longer.

They came during Maribelle's tea time, which was why we knew about the attack so close to its start. Maribelle had been in a room with an open window enjoying the light breeze while sipping her tea while I had been leaning against a wall near her when a loud shriek rent the air causing her to spill her tea. Maribelle paid no notice to the stain on her clothes though, her head instead jerking in the direction the scream had come for only a moment before she quickly put her tea cup down and began not quite running out of the room as she said "Matthew, with me!"

" _Yes ma'am."_ I said in English more out of habit than not knowing the Ylissian equivalent and we quickly made our way out of the manor. Once outside, we saw that two building roofs were already on fire with the civilians running away in fear though thankfully there didn't seem to be any fatalities, _yet_. Seeing a mage raider about to torch a third building, I formed four Water Shuriken and then threw the homing spell at him. The fours throwing stars sliced into his right arm where he was holding his tome, the shinobi tools not doing much damage (They weren't actually meant to be killing tools, more as a distraction after all), but they did the job of making him drop his book and gave me enough time to get close enough to be sure of my aim thanks to a quick Negate- Foot Based Wind Jet combination jump. He had just enough time to turn around before my Ellightning slammed into his torso and knocked him on his ass twitching. I hit him with a second one to be sure and then I was forced to focus on the rest of the group who had taken notice of my take down and was now rushing towards me.

I had just enough time to take in that there were about twenty more of the guys with a mix of lances, swords, and axes, leaning more to axes when Maribelle finished running over and placed herself in front of me and began quickly speaking at the raiders. I didn't need to speak Ylissan to know that she was trying to resolve this peacefully, and I didn't need to only be able to make out roughly one in every ten words to know that it wasn't going to end well.

The raiders gave Maribelle maybe two minutes to speak before the closest one lurched forward to grab her only to howl in pain as I spun her away with my left arm around her while my right foot came up in a roundhouse kick and slammed into him and discharged an Ellightning into him at point blank range.

The man fell to the floor with electricity sparking over his body for a few moments and everything seemed to just STOP as the raiders looked on in shock. That shock turned into fear when I formed a pair of Lances, Fire in my right hand and Lighting in my left and purposefully said _"I'm only going to say this_ one time,Run."

The last three words were enough context for the first six words and one of the raiders proved his intelligence as he threw down his weapon and booked it screaming something I didn't really catch. There was a brief moment where the rest didn't make a move then one of them yelled and charged at me raising his axe for a swing. I spun my lances once before I sidestepped the frantic and thus badly telegraphed blow the bandit jerking as his rush impaled him on the Lightning Lance. I let it go and it stayed around for about ten seconds before fading away, not that I noticed this as I used my now free left hand to throw a full brace of Water Shuriken at the next two people charging causing them to howl in pain as they dropped their weapons and clutched their now bloody eyes. I took the one on the right out with a thrust of my Fire Lance and the one on the left with a Bubble Beam that blew him back from the repetitive explosions, several ribs collapsed given the sunken in appearance of his chest when he landed and blood seeping out of his ears from the concussive barrage.

Immediate area in front of me clear, I instinctively brought my hands together and shouted out "Wind Jet, Elfire!" The right hand Spell Sigil shrieked as it launched out a blast of wind before the sound turned into a loud roar as I launched my improvised flame thrower at the group catching five in it's wash when they weren't fast enough to get out of the way. They fell to the ground screaming as they burned but I didn't have to pay them any more attention because the last ten finally realized that going one or two at a time was a bad idea and decided to start playing smart and split into two groups to try to flank me and Maribelle (Who I would see later had her Parasol out and ready).

Seeing the much larger threat of TWO groups of FIVE, I momentarily panicked. One or two people I felt reasonable confident in my odds of if not getting seriously hurt then at least not dying. (I blamed early Karate training and FPS games) Ten people at once was another matter. In my panic, I reverted to the Gatling style of spray and pray and tossed out a blistering barrage of Ellights at the two groups. The results were…not pretty.

The barrage of the fastest element pierced the group without hesitation, leaving them perforated with so many holes they made Swiss Cheese look as solid as a barn wall. As the two groups fell to the ground, I winced at the sight of their bodies covered in gaping holes before I forced myself to look away. With the immediate threat over, I shot a bunch of Waters at the two burning buildings extinguishing the fires before I remembered the runner and what he had seen me do. Now regretting trying to pull a This Bites! Brook and giving him the option, and thus the head start, I pulled out my 3DS and used the world map on it to locate and mark said runner. Seeing that he was making a break for the border, I made a quick decision before I turned to Maribelle and put my bookbag over one of her shoulders and left the still open to the World Map 3DS into her hand as I said "Stay here."

Not letting her say anything, I used a quick Gravitational Pull to yank the dead mage's tome into my left hand before I negated my weight to nothing and used Wind Jets to shoot out of the town and after the raider. I trailed him until we had just reached the border where a couple of boulders hid us from a LOT of enemy markers. Landing, I ran after him and _just_ as he opened his mouth to yell at his fellow country men my Fire hit him on the back and down he went.

I skidded to a stop by the body, panting to sell the illusion that I had chased him normally before I looked up and around the boulder before widening my eyes in faked surprise as I said _"Ah, hi there."_

The company of Plegian soldiers with Gangrel at the front blinked once at me even as the Mad King's face began gaining an evil grin at the sight of me. He barked out an order and a nearby cleric held up his staff which began glowing. All of a sudden, I felt my eyelids grow heavy and the last thought I had was 'Sleep staff, didn't think those were in Awakening." Then I lost consciousness and my body hit the ground.

END

Author's Notes: Update schedule is on the profile, please look there to know when next update is.

Man, I am BUSY these two weeks. I'm working EIGHT days in a row this pay period, so I'm glad I managed to get this done in time. Also, three more weeks before my New Years resolution is met, the finish line is in sight!


	4. Chapter 4

4\. Waiting For Some Action

Ylissean

 _English_

Story Start: Plegian Fortress On The Border

I came to sitting on the floor in a small cell with my hands raised above my head by the shackles over head. The stinging in my cheek told me someone had slapped me awake and I'd put money on the succubus wannabe Aversa seeing as how she was standing in front of me with Gangrel standing next to her with a large smirk on his face as he said "Ah, the prisoner awakes."

I briefly thought about shooting the bastard and bitch (hey, they matched!) with the spell sigils on my hands, but even if I did kill them, what was stopping some soldier from putting me to sleep again via Sleep Staff and then killing me while I was defenseless? So instead I did my best to handlessly crack my neck as I said in halting Ylissean "You treat all guests this nicely?"

Gangrel let out a bark of pleased laughter and said "Oh, I like you, it really is a pity that you have to die in a few days for my war to start."

I only got about a third of what he said but I could guess the rest from context and I smirked as I said _"No, what's really a pity is that you've managed to escape being arrested for public indecency for so long with that ugly face of yours."_

Both Gangrel and Aversa blinked before looking at each other in confusion before Gangrel leaned in and said "I have no clue what silliness you just said, but I think I've just been insulted, and there's only one response for that." I _thought_ he was going to spit on me, instead I got a fist to the gut and I let out an unwilling "Ommph!" as the air was forced out of my lungs and I slumped just a little more from the hit.

Nodding in satisfaction, Gangrel leaned back up and said "Do enjoy your stay, it won't be long till your execution. Come Aversa!"

"Yes, Your highness." Aversa said and followed him out.

Shaking my head as the solid wood door closed, I muttered to myself _"And some people actually like that character, why? And leaving a prisoner in a cell without a way to actually see them from outside the door is just plain stupid."_

Giving the shackles around my hands and the chains they were connected to an evaluating look, I muttered _"Let's see, Water Hole or Wind Blade? Better stick to the one I have more experience with I guess. Don't want to liquidize the whole chain after all."_ Curling my left hand into a fist and bending my wrist as far down as the shackles would allow it to, I made a Wind Blade in my right hand and slowly brought it to the chain holding the other hand up. I decided to make my cut at the third link so that way I could hide the cut behind my hands when there were others in the room and _slowly_ brought the blade closer to the metal. The soft humming of the blade picked up in pitch when it touched the metal and I winced at the sound and jerked it back while I anxiously glanced at the door of the cell but no one came through it and I breathed a sigh of relief before I once more put the blade against the metal and slowly cut through it.

Three minutes later, both chains had just enough of a gap in one of their links that I could pull them from the ones above them and I brought my hands down onto my lap twisting my wrists as much as I could to alleviate the strain that they had been put under. As I did so, I looked around at the room with nothing but the single set of shackles and a bucket that I _thought_ was to relieve myself but was on the same wall as the door so who knew and cursed the fact that I had to give Maribelle my book bag and more importantly, my 3DS in order to keep them from being confiscated by Gangrel's goons.

Seeing as how I had nothing else to do while I waited, I decided to make more progress on my Staff class spells. Maribelle wasn't around to stop me right now after all. I wasn't going to do it the same way I did back at her place though, all of the blood might make the guards suspicious, if any were actually going to come in between now and the day of my supposed execution. Instead what I did was make a slight nick with the tip of one of my Shadow Claws before healing it with the highest healing staff spell I had. Was it completely overkill to use high tier healing spells on what amounted to wide paper cuts? Oh, must definitely, but the spell sigils still counted them as uses and so that was the method I stuck to. Speaking of high tier spells, my unlocked Staff class spells were as follows.

Level C for Staff class had Recover, Repair and Unlock. Pretty straight forward when everything was said and done.

Level B had Psychic for its primary, which on top of being a stronger healing spell also had the added benefit of being capable of 'long range' healing from up to a hundred feet away though it did lose effectiveness for every ten feet until you mastered it at each of those ranges. (I foresaw a LOT of battlefield healing in my future to get that 'full' mastery.) The next spell of the tier was Warp which could translocate anyone, friend or foe, to a spot anywhere around me in either a five hundred foot circumference or line of sight distance. Basically, it meant the farther I could see then the farther my range, though like Psychic's distance healing the line of sight version required practice to extend range. The final spell of the tier was Berserk, which made it's target pretty much pull a Hulk and treat _everyone_ as their enemy. I'd have to be very careful when using that spell because it made dealing with said target rather hard. Then again, if I could hit an enemy general with it while he was in the middle of his troops…

Level A had Fortify for its Primary, which was a step up from Psychic in that it allowed multiple 'targets' to be healed at once, even at a distance, though again, that distance ability had to be trained the same as the 'local' version. For secondaries, both Barrier and Sleep got upgrades with Bunker and Coma respectively. Bunker could apparently take multiple A class spells easily and if you stacked two on top of each other you could apparently tank an S class spell or two. It made me wonder if they could take a nuke if I stacked enough together. Coma was apparently the staff version of the Draught of Living Death from the Harry Potter franchise. Anyone hit by it was NOT waking up anytime soon unless the original caster wanted them to, remaining in a state of stasis even if the caster had died. The ONLY way for a non-caster to wake the person up was to use a 'Class S' restorative item, some of the examples given being Phoenix Tears, Phoenix Downs, and Drops of Sun, all of which by my understanding were pretty damn hard to get your hands on.

Finally, for its primary level S had Regenerate, which, while it didn't have the long range of the last two levels DID allow you to regrow entire limbs if need be, though apparently it was a rather painful experience. Probably from the fact that you were re-growing the nerves if I had to take a guess. For the first secondary, (Hah!) another lower tiered spell got an upgrade. Silence's much more vindictive brother was Mute, which much like Coma didn't have a time limit and ended when the caster said it did. It would take one hell of a spell cancelation ritual for a non-caster to lift it, as in a multi hour one that requires roughly three quarters or more of the user's magic. When I read the description, I had a grin grow on my face that the Joker would be envious of as I thought of a certain giraffe necked bastard and fat spider I'd like to use it on. The final Staff spell I now had access to gave me KotoR flashbacks: Combat Sync, or in other words, Battle Meditation. As long as I had this spell active then all of my allies would fight at least twice as effectively as before. The only down side was that the spell only lasted for ten minutes with a cool down time of twenty meaning I would have to be very careful about when I used it.

Needless to say, after I had upgraded my Staff spells as much as I could I was back to being bored out of my mind. There was no way to tell time in the cell and I was only visited once by a guard who gave me some bread (fortunately still fresh), a few cups of water (Unneeded thanks to my Water Hole spell but still drank) allowed me to use the bucket in the corner which he then thankfully swapped out for another, and then left. I had used my new Repair spell on the chains so that way he couldn't tell that I had already been free but as soon as he left I was back to being bored.

I wasn't sure if it was only a day or three when the same guard came back in and undid my shackles before binding my wrists behind my back with rope before dragging me out of the cell, and while I'd certainly ask Maribelle next time I saw her, I quite frankly didn't care. All I cared was that for once in who knew how long I could finally feel the sun on my face as I was brought out of the fortress and down a set steep mountain trails over to where Aversa was waiting with a rather cruel smile on her face.

As we reached her, Aversa caressed my face like a twisted mockery of a lover and she all but crooned "I'm afraid this is your last day among the living handsome."

I didn't even need to understand half of that to get what she was saying, the tone of her voice was enough translation and I gave her a flat look as I responded "Be careful, it could be your last day as well."

Aversa's smile widened a bit as she mused "Defiant to the end, I like that." She then pointed to a spot behind where she was standing and the guard obediently put me there. As we began to wait, I had my head on a swivel taking in all of the Plegian soldiers who were also waiting. A quick count of one hundred thirty marked this as a Company waiting for battle and I let out a soft whistle to myself as I said _"Man, Gangrel's_ _really pulling out the stops for this one."_

Aversa glanced back at me with a raised eyebrow but ignored my foreign speech when a call came up from further down the mountain path and we all saw the Shepherds making their way over with the Exalt, Chrom, and Robin in the lead. Maribelle was right behind them and even from where I was I could see the worry in her eyes when they finally spotted me. A quick scan of my own showed that Ricken wasn't with the group and my eyes began flitting around the surrounding area trying to find an IFF tag that didn't match the others. As Gangrel and Emmeryn began chatting I finally spotted what I was looking for two hundred yards away steadily making its way from cover to cover and I had to mentally applaud Ricken on his stealth skills because I sure as hell wouldn't have spotted him if I had to rely on my normal eyesight.

Turning away from the tag in order to not draw unwanted attention to Ricken's position, I glanced back down at where Gangrel was still talking with the Shepherds. I could see Chrom getting steadily angrier with every sentence the Mad King uttered and I was sure that the only thing keeping the prince from leaping at the man was the calm words of his older sister and his tactician's hand on his shoulder. Robin wasn't looking at Gangrel though, instead like Maribelle she had her eyes trained on me and when I smirked and then winked down at her both of the ladies' eyes widened. Seeing this Aversa looked over her shoulder at me and I quickly blanked my face causing her to shrug and turn back forward.

It wasn't long before the three sacrifices, I'm sorry, barbarian class soldiers ran towards the Shepherds to make a go at Emmeryn and Chrom lost his temper and killed them. As Gangrel cackled his delight and declared war, I twitched my fingers in preparation. As he ordered Aversa to kill me, I formed a single Water Shuriken in one hand and used it to cut the ropes holding my wrists together while the other shot an Ellight at my guard. The sound of the guard dropping to the ground had Aversa spinning around only for her eyes to widen as my now free right hand gripped the hand holding her sword tightly while my left was held right in front of her face and I grinned as I said in my best Terminator Voice _"Hosta la vista, baby. Ellightning!"_

The bolt of electricity shot right through Aversa's skull and she dropped like a sack of potatoes. I glanced over at Ricken who had skidded to a stop from his run when he saw my actions and I gave him a cheerful hand wave and said "Yo."

"Uh, hi." Ricken said waving back before Gangrel's scream of rage reminded me I had other matters to tend to. Snapping my left arm up to point over Ricken's right shoulder, I waited just long enough to call out "Get down!" and Ricken to duck before I fired an Ellight which streaked across the distance to slam into a Plegian IFF tag higher up the mountain which quickly faded away showing I had made another kill. That opened the flood gates and the battle was on.

As the Shepherds stormed up the path, I pointed behind me with my right hand and said _"Cover_ my six!" Ricken, not understanding the military reference (There weren't any clocks in this world from what I saw) but understanding the gesture quickly ran over and held his Elwind tomb tightly in preparation of combat while I turned my focus onto the rest of the mountain and began firing Ellights across the great distances separating us from the enemy ranks, relying on the literally light speed fast attacks to remove the need to lead my targets. Just as my last Ellight took out its target my Light class spell repertoire upgraded from D to C. But before I could even think of looking at the notification provided a screech came from above and me and Ricken snapped our heads up.

A flight of wyverns were rapidly bearing down at us, the riders most likely assuming that just because Ricken and I were the only two enemies so far up the mountain away from where the other Shepherds were fighting that we would be easy pickings if they ambushed us. That or they wanted to stop my long range sniping, either or really. Unfortunately for them, one of their mounts had gotten a little bit too eager and had given up the ghost before they could get close enough. That wyvern paid dearly for that mistake when both Ricken and my Elwinds slammed into the poor creature and almost literally ripped it to pieces. The rider screamed in fear as the now thoroughly dead wyvern plummeted like an anvil rather than in a controlled dive and we quickly jumped out of the way even as we continued firing at the other riders who rather sensibly broke off and tried to get the _hell_ away from us when they realized that both Ricken and I had access to a flyer's SECOND worst nightmare: Wind Magic. Only one out of the original eight got out of range only for him to have made the monumental mistake of flying TOWARDS the other Shepherds and a hyper accurate arrow from Virion downed him.

With that taken care of I glanced over at the two fortresses that were further up the mountain and frowned as I saw several cavalry units come rushing out followed by what looked like long bow archers and mages. Glancing towards the Shepherds showed that they were still a ways down the mountain though they had dealt with all of their enemies and were heading up to us as fast as they could. Mentally bemoaning the fact that I hadn't yet had a chance to practice with Warp and thus couldn't bring the whole group up to Ricken and my position, I made a snap choice and tapped Ricken's shoulder. When I had his attention, I squatted down and said _"Hop on!"_ I could literally _feel_ Ricken's incredulousness when he figured out what I wanted him to do but the moment he scrabbled onto my back I lightened both of our weights with Negate and quickly shot down the mountain towards the rest of the Shepherds.

Two minutes of quick running down the winding mountain path later and I skidded to a stop in front of Chrom and let Ricken down as I brought both of our weights back to normal. Chrom gave Ricken and I a quick evaluating look even as he seemed to chide the fourteen year old beside me. I didn't have any time to try and translate what he was saying though since as soon as I reached the group Maribelle had stomped over and slapped me as she said _"You idiotic, self-sacrificing moron! Why did you do that?!"_

Idly rubbing my stinging cheek, (And subtly healing it as I did so) I said _"Better me than you."_

Maribelle blushed a little and tried to stutter out a response to that only for Robin to pointedly cough and say "Guys, we're still in a fight you know."

"Right." Maribelle said while coughing into her fist before she gave me a stern look and said _"This isn't over mister."_

I merely raised an eyebrow before I accepted my bookbag back from the noble. Slipping it on, I turned to look up the mountain and saw that the archers and mages had taken up positions, mages lower than the archers, and were just getting read to shoot at us. Frowning up at them, I ignored Sumia's fearful exclamation and instead raised my right hand skyward and called out "Bunker!" A shimmering dome of energy spread out over us all earning several gasps from the Shepherds just as the barrage was launched. A few seconds later the arrows pinged off the barrier while the spell fire harmlessly splashed against it. I just wished the enemy was close enough to properly see their expressions because I was sure the shocked looks they must have been wearing right now would have been hilarious.

" _Since when could you do that?"_ Maribelle asked in awe even as the mages tried bringing the shield down with stronger 'artillery' fire.

" _Oh, about a day or so ago?"_ I half stated half asked with a cocked head.

Maribelle stiffened and turned angry eyes on me as she asked _"Are you telling me that on top of allowing yourself to be captured, you continued to bring harm to yourself?!"_

I shrugged and said _"Eh, I was bored and they were only pinpricks this time anyway. And may I say that you have gotten a_ lot _better at speaking English since we started."_

"As interesting as I'm sure this discussion is between you two, we are in the middle of a battle here. Matthew, can you move while keeping this barrier up?" Robin asked.

After Maribelle had helpfully translated, I shook my head and said _"It's called bunker for a reason, it's a stationary spell."_ Robin tsked when Maribelle once more translated but before she could say anything, I continued _"But don't worry, I've got this."_

" _What do you mean you've got this?!"_ Maribelle asked incredulously only to shout a surprised "HEY!" as I ran through the dome of energy and negated my weight before using Wind Jets from my feet to rapidly shoot straight up into the air. A quickly raised set of five barriers around me kept me safe from the archers and mages until I was too high up for their fire to be effective and I hovered as I finally pulled up the Class level up notification muttering to myself "Oh, please be something good."

For C Class, the Light category had Arclight, Light Whip, and Light Ripple's upgrade, Light Wave. Arclight and Light Wave were pretty easy to understand while Light Whip could apparently both slice or grab depending on what the user wanted.

Sighing to myself, I said "I was hoping for something a little more artillery like but, eh, I've got a few things from the other classes I could use." So saying, I supercharged my chosen spell and called out "Fire in the hole! Flame Burst!" Fire erupted from my hand in a roiling mass and slammed down onto the ground inside a group of panicking archers before it exploded and threw fire for a good twenty feet. As I launched more and more of the mortar spells screams began filling the air as the archers and mages began falling back to the shelter of the fortresses. A glance down to where I had left the Shepherds showed them already dealing with the cavalry units so I turned my focus back to the long range users. Once they had all reached the fortresses I nodded to myself and shot back down towards the others and quickly used Arclight on any of the stragglers.

Landing, I brought my weight back up to normal and dusted my hands off as I said _"That takes care of that."_

" _Indeed, we can now finish our discussion."_ Maribelle said in a falsely sweet tone.

"Save it you two, we need to get back to the capital." Robin said, pointing back to said capital for my benefit.

" _Guess we're walking and talking."_ I said with a grin to Maribelle who only let out a huff as she and I began following everyone else.

End

Author's Notes: Schedule and Poll on my profile.

Speaking of polls, even though some of you have said you'll check out my discord server, I haven't got any friend requests, do you guys need help, or do you just not want to install a new program?

One last thing, I'm literally in the middle of Harry kicking old Tommy boy's nonexistent backside in my War Alicorn one shot so I'm going to spend a couple of weeks trying to get that finished before I move onto Wearing the Skin of a Shinobi, just a heads up.


	5. Chapter 5

5\. Silence of the Giraffe

Ylissian

 _English_

Maribelle had apparently done her best to learn as much of English as possible _specifically_ so that I could understand every word of her rant. Honestly, the amount of words she knew for stupid was rather impressive seeing as how her rant had gone on for thirty minutes without repetition. When she _finally_ finished, I turned my head up towards her on her mount (We WERE marching back to the capital in rocky terrain after all) and said _"Can I talk now?"_

Maribelle huffed but gave me a nod and I said _"Good, now, yes what I did was idiotic, but considering you don't have magic markings on your hands and feet, out of the two of us, I was the best equipped for escape after being captured."_

Maribelle flushed lightly as she spluttered " _Bu-I-Yo-argh! How can you_ still _miss the point?!"_

I gave a shrug of my shoulders and said _"I'm not missing it, I'm just letting it hit the ground is all."_

Maribelle's response was to let out a frustrated sound before she had her horse march further up the group while muttering what sounded like rather unpleasant things under her breath in Ylissian. I let out a chuckle at that even as I pulled out my 3DS and began charging it with Charge, unsurprised to find that Maribelle had kept it on to the point of its battery being drained. I was sure that she would come around eventually, after all, what I had said was logical, no matter how much she wished to deny it.

It was only ten minutes later that I would belatedly realize that at some point in the last couple of weeks the Shepherds had recruited Donnel.

Scene Change: Ylisse Palace, Night Time

When we got back to the capital, I had to deal with Maribelle giving me the cold shoulder for a while. After a few hours thoug Lissa had apparently talked to her though the Noble didn't tell me what the Princess had said to her. Whatever it was, had Maribelle continue her lessons in Ylissian though she was still rather stiff with me.

But now it was night time, there had been an explosion, and I was playing counter invader as I zapped an assassin with Elthunder as they tried to get in a second story window. My fifth kill for the night fell to the ground still twitching from residual electricity and I checked my world map that that was the last one trying to get in from this area. With that done, I put away my 3DS, Negated my weight, and dropped out of the open window to the ground below before I began making my way to the marker that marked the spot of a certain long necked bastard, blasting away anyone who had the misfortune of being in my way.

When I reached the large garden holding Validar, I took a moment to look at all of the Calvary he had surrounding him. Tsking to myself, I mused "They must have teleported straight in, no other way they could get all those horses in here like that." Shaking my head from those thoughts, I took a quick glance inwards and saw several blue IFFs rapidly approaching. I hesitated for a moment wondering if I should wait or not before Validar spotted me and took the choice away from me.

"Get him! Elfire!" Validar shouted as he pointed at me and launched a blast of fire. Three of the ten Calvary units around him were quick to charge forwards as well.

I shot an Elwater into the fire spell canceling it out with one hand and then right after shot an Electroweb at the charging soldiers and horses. The rapidly expanded web quickly tripped up all three horses and they whinnied in pain as they struggled in the nets, their riders also shouting as the net electrocuted them. An Ellightning to each soldier's head as I passed took care of them and as soon as I dismissed the Electroweb the horses bolted away from me, one of them with its now dead rider somehow still in the saddle.

Validar was looking at me in rage as I continued walking towards him in a seemingly calm manner. Just as he opened his mouth though, I shot my right hand up and pointed it at him and barked out "MUTE!" Validar flashed white for a moment and I had the satisfaction of seeing his eyes widen when he found that he couldn't talk. The fact that he somehow paled even with his dark skin when he seemed to try and use magic only to fail made my night. Before he could try and nonverbally order the rest of the Calvary units to attack I launched an Ellightning at all seven rapid fire. Two managed to dodge while the rest cooked in their electrified armor. When the two that had dodged rushed towards me in a desperate charge, I got them with Arclights even as I continued my unhurried pace.

There was a palpable fear in Validar's eyes now as I continued my walk. A moment later, he spun around and sprinted further into the garden only for my Light Whip to wrap around his right ankle and trip him up. He scrabbled at the ground as I began pulling him back towards me. When I had him within five feet I heard from behind me "Matt, enough."

Looking behind me showed Chrom and Robin along with some palace guards. Raising my eyebrow, I pointed at Validar and said "Leader. Mute, no magic." That had Chrom narrowing his eyes and he pointed at Validar and said "Guards, seize him."

"Yes Your Highness." Two of them said with narrowed eyes of their own and grabbed Validar by the arms and none too gently hoisted him to his feet as I dismissed the Light Whip. Validar was thrashing in their grip and silently shouting as they dragged him away. I was SOO tempted to just shoot him with a spell but I knew he would just come back again. Besides, I didn't know if my Mute would remain if he did come back to life so this was actually better.

"Well done Matt." Chrom said as he walked over and clapped a hand on my shoulder. I nodded before I asked "Exalt?"

"Em's safe." Chrom said and I nodded before we all headed back inside. One conversation with a bunny taguel later and it was decided the Emmeryn would be relocated to the eastern palace in the morning. With discussions over, I went to bed in the Shepherds' barracks with plans whirling through my head. Maribelle was going to be rather cross with me again.

END

Author's Notes: Update Schedule and Poll is on my profile which I recommend you look at.

I keep forgetting how short the chapters for this story is without the dialogue at the start and end. That shouldn't be a problem for too long though. (Maribelle is _thorough_ in her lessons.) Anyway, Fish Tales is next on the schedule so there won't be an update for a while.


	6. Chapter 6

6\. Incursion

Ylissian

 _English_

Story Start: Breakneck Pass

It is an unfortunate reality that transporting a leader, even in secret, takes time to initiate. Second in Commands that would be left in charge needed to be discretely notified and logistics had to be acquired for the trip just as discretely. If this had been a Nuclear Age world that last one wouldn't have been such a problem, just have a few security men go to a corner gas station to pick up your usual traveling food. Here though, food had to be prepared on the spot. After all, it was highly unlikely Frederick could find enough bears each night to feed all of us while we were traveling.

That meant that it was just after dawn by the time we left the castle, which I'm sure had been plenty of time for the traitor now literally in our midst to send off his message. We then proceeded to walk for six hours before the trouble I had expected showed up.

I was walking up front with a Negated Lissa riding piggy back, a consequence of the princess witnessing me make a Negate assisted set of leaps up a steep hill in order to reach the front of the convoy an hour ago. The fact that she HAD had blisters on her feet that she healed with her staff once she was off of them made me a bit more charitable to her attempts at carrying on a conversation with me, something that went a lot better than the first time we tried to talk all those weeks ago thanks to Maribelle's efforts. But as I saw the red icons in my IFF denoting enemy units on the upcoming mountain tops, I brought her weight back to normal and had her slide off my back before I walked a little faster to reach Chrom and Robin who were walking with Frederick on her other side at the very front of the convoy and said quietly "Don't look, but I saw enemy symbols on the mountain tops."

The two stiffened slightly and Fredrick quietly asked "Are you sure?"

My eyes flicked to the side towards him before going back forward as I said "I saw many last night and at the battle at Border Pass, I'm sure."

"Blast it! How did they know?!" Chrom asked softly, doing his best NOT to look towards the top of the mountains we were rapidly approaching.

"Either they guessed that we would be moving the Exalt after the attack on the palace last night or someone told them." Robin said quietly.

Frederick frowned and said "I had thought it was just nerves, but I have noticed the Hierarch glancing at the peaks every few minutes before rapidly looking away."

Chrom frowned and quietly asked "The hierarch? But he's been a friend of House Ylisse for many years. He guided Emmeryn during the early years of her rule. Why would he betray us?!"

" _Bad survival instincts."_ I muttered lowly to myself. Robin glanced at me in confusion but didn't say anything due to having her attention drawn by Frederick as he said "Your Highness, no one wants to believe someone that they have known their whole life is willing to betray them, but we have to take in the evidence we are presented with."

Chrom closed his eye with a scowl before he opened them with a hard light in them as he asked "Well Robin, you're our tactician, how do we do this?"

Robin hummed to herself and said "The fact that the enemy is waiting at the mountain tops rather than closer to our level means that they're most likely fliers. We should have all of our magic users switch to Wind magic tomes as discreetly as possible."

"I can help with that." I said, handing an Elwind tome to Robin from my bookbag.

"Oh, thank you." Robin said in surprise, seeming to hand me her Elthunder tome in exchange on automatic before blinking and asked "Matthew, you do not require tomes for magic, why do you have tomes in your bag?"

I shrugged, giving her original tome back to her with one hand and pointed at my book bag with the other as I said "Unlimited storage, good for providing supplies in a combat zone." I had taken the time to acquire multiple low class spell tomes, arrow quivers, and other miscellaneous tools of combat from the armory last night.

"Can't argue with that. Matt, please put a Bunker spell around Em when the fighting starts." Chrom said and I gave a salute before I began trailing back down the convoy. (It wasn't really an ambush if the people being ambushed knew ahead of time now was it?) Riken already used Wind as his primary so he was good to go already but Miriel had Fire as her primary so I gave her an Elwind tome. Thankfully, she accepted it with only a raised eyebrow and hum of curiosity, putting her Elfire tome into her traveling bag hanging from one shoulder. A moment of consideration later I slowed again just enough for Maribelle to come alongside me.

The Noble glanced down at me as I matched pace with her horse and said _"Matthew, I saw you talking with Chrom and Robin, should we be expecting trouble?"_

"Mhmm." I hummed an affirmative, handing her a Wind tome (Unlike the more veteran magic users' Elwind tomes) and said _"I know you're not quite up to combat readiness with magic yet, but do me a favor and keep a hold of this just in case."_

" _Very well."_ Maribelle said with a nod that I returned before I continued trailing until I was at the center of the group where Emmeryn was riding a horse next to Phila's Pegasus.

The two glanced at me but before they could say anything a loud Wyvern screech filled the air and two dozen Plegian soldiers dropped from the mountain tops to hover a hundred feet above the group, six of them at the front with the supposed leader of the group saying something to Chrom with a sneer. Emmeryn gasped and Phila quickly put her Pegasus in front of her. I stuck both in a Bunker spell getting surprised looks from the pair and said "Stay in there!"

I put an inverted Bunker over the first just for good measure before I lined up my right hand on the closest Wyrvern Rider. Apparently, pre battle banter was already over up front because it was already in the process of rushing for the Exalt. My Elwind slammed into the Wyvern at the same time Virion's arrow found the female rider's eye and the now dead pair got flung into the open air opposite the mountain we were on and began falling the long way down to the bottom. The other twenty three enemies didn't last much longer. Between me blasting Elwinds at everything in the air NOT Sumia, said Pegasus rider, three other wind users, Virion, and even Maribelle getting a shot off, the rest of the Shepherds didn't have to raise a finger.

" _Well, that happened."_ I muttered to myself even as I dropped the two apparently unneeded Bunker spells from around Emmeryn and Phila. I idly noted that I only needed to cast five more Elwinds before I reached C Class for my Wind Spells before a new IFF tag appearing in my visual range had me pulling out my 3DS XL. A quick glance at its map to confirm it was who I thought had me calling out "Inbound Friendly Pegasus Rider!"

Everyone looked at me, then at where I turned my gaze back to where Cordelia was rapidly approaching. She arrived within a minute of me spotting her and as she settled down next to Phila, everyone having given her Pegasus the space needed to land there, the young Pegasus Knight had palpable fear on her face as she said "Your Grace! My prince! Run! As far and fast as you can! More Plegians are coming, not a half day's march behind you!"

Phila frowned and said "Cordelia! Take a deep breath and calm down, panic does you no good." Half a minute later, when her subordinate didn't look like one wrong word or action would have her bolting again, she said "Now, what happened?"

As Cordelia reported the loss of the border, I stepped away from the main group, not noticing Maribelle's eyes focusing on me as I did so. Expanding the World Map on my 3DS, I shifted it over to focus on the border and zoomed in on what I thought was the most likely breaching point. Scrolling along the route from there to Ylisstol rewarded me with the sight of an entire _Regiment's_ worth of enemies rapidly making their way to the capital, and a closer look showed that at least a third of the units were archer type avatars. No wonder Cordelia's sister knights couldn't hold the border, the enemy probably took a page out of the Persian army's playbook and made it rain arrows.

Frowning at the sight of so many enemies, I had to admit that my plan of intercepting the group before they could capture the Exalt was seriously flawed. I had thought that I could use hit and run tactics along with using Warp to snatch enemies to my location in surprise attacks to continuously whittle down their numbers. That could have worked if there had only been a Company, maybe even if there was the smaller side of a Battalion. But against over _a thousand enemies_? Yeah, no, the best I would be able to do was skim some of the numbers off the top. Maybe if I had a higher tier leveled spell available than C I would have a spell available that could do enough wide spread damage to make a difference but at my current level I'd be slaughtered, _especially_ since I hadn't found the Teleport function on my 3DS yet to help with escape if needed. Even using Berserk on a few dozen of them wouldn't work since I would STILL be in the middle of it all. It looked like this was one event that I wouldn't be able to change after all.

Turning off my 3DS and closing it with a snap and a quiet but heart felt " _Damnit!"_ I gave an explosive sigh only to stiffen as I heard from behind me _"Matthew, I certainly hope you are not planning on doing something stupidly reckless again."_

Giving another sigh, I turned around and said _"I admit I can do things that are reckless or stupid, but I try to avoid doing both at the same time. And taking on a Regiment is unfortunately both."_

Maribelle had troubled eyes at the troop designation I used even as she nodded and said _"Good, then that means that I don't have to use this on you after all."_ As she held up the staff in her hands, it was at that point that I noticed she didn't have her usual Mend staff out.

Blinking as I identified the type, I looked back up at Maribelle and raised an eyebrow as I asked " _You were going Sleep me?"_

" _Matthew, you already ran head long into an enemy force on your own once, I wasn't going to let you do that again."_ Maribelle said with a stern frown on her face.

" _Alright, A, we both know that that last group was a capture group, their leader said it themselves, B, I told you what new Staff spells I had when we returned to the capital so you know I could set up ambush points if need be, and C, out of this entire paramilitary group, I'm the only guy who wouldn't run out of magic tomes if I went spell crazy out there. I would have been perfectly fine if Gangrel had gone for quality over quantity."_ I said, ticking the points off of my fingers before crossing my arms.

Maribelle crossed her own with a huff and said _"Why must you use logic to be so frustrating?"_

I shrugged and said _"It's a gift."_ Maribelle grumbled something probably uncomplimentary under her breath before she tossed me her borrowed Wind tome and then turned around and stalked back to where the other Shepherds were watching Emmeryn and Phila make their way back down the mountain trail. Giving the pair a long look, I made a decision then and there: By the time we rescued them at the Plegian capital, I _would_ have S tiered spells for at least one of my more offensive elemental spells.

But for now, all I could do was fall into the line with the rest of the group as we changed destinations to the North and began walking again.

END

Author's Notes: Update Schedule and Poll for new story on my Profile.

Seriously guys, only twenty of you have voted for which story you want taking Flesh to Metal V2's slot once it's done, go vote. Don't make me build a time machine to send you all back to November 6.


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